Can Virus Cure Cancer

Posting Date: 02/04/2004

The virus, named Sindbis after the Egyptian town where it was first identified, is found in many parts of Asia and Africa. It is carried and transmitted exclusively by mosquitoes, which bite and infect humans and other animals. In humans, the virus causes cold-like symptoms, such as fever and muscle ache, which quickly subside.

Viruses aren?t usually thought of as beneficial, but in recent years scientists have started to take advantage of the ability of viruses to infiltrate human cells, enlisting these infectious agents to treat disease. Most of these viruses have been genetically engineered so that they will not cause disease, but will infect rapidly dividing cancer cells. At least 10 different oncolytic, or cancer-killing, viruses are in early clinical trials.

Sindbis is different from these other cancer-killing viruses in that most of the others have to undergo some kind of genetic manipulation to target cancer cells, and they also have to be injected directly into tumors. The NYU School of Medicine team found that Sindbis requires no such manipulation to be effective, and it can apparently be injected anywhere into mice but still find its way through the bloodstream unscathed to the target area.

?Nature gave us a gift in Sindbis,? says Dr Meruelo. ?It has a natural ability to infect tumor cells almost exclusively, and naturally induces cell death in these tumor cells.?

This relatively mild-mannered virus first came under scientific scrutiny as a potential vehicle for gene therapy, where modified viruses are used to ferry genetic treatments into cells. But the unmodified virus, without added genes, surprised Dr. Meruelo and his colleagues. They found that it was quite successful at killing tumor cells all on its own. ?We realized the natural, unmodified Sindbis was working beautifully so we decided to examine that more carefully,? says Dr. Meruelo.

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